LRA poaching ivory as Kony hunt intensifies … Lord's Resistance Army rebels are killing elephants for ivory to raise cash as an international hunt for their leader intensifies, diplomats and activists said. While nations believe they have LRA chief Joseph Kony on the run in the jungles of Central Africa, the Ugandan-origin rebels are still causing deadly chaos in several countries. The LRA has turned to ivory trafficking and also extended its area of operations, a UN Security Council meeting was told. "There are credible reports of the LRA poaching elephants in the Democratic Republic of the Congo and illegally trafficking ivory," said Jeffrey DeLaurentis, a deputy US ambassador. – AFP
Dominant Social Theme: This Lord's Resistance Army may only be comprised of 20 or 30 people and their leader may be dead, but by gosh, they do get around! It is estimated by experts that this handful of individuals is responsible for the slaughter of millions throughout Africa and the lower Middle East. Their technology has generated droughts throughout sub-Sarahan Africa and their allies were chiefly Muammar Gaddafi and now Syria's Hafez Assad.
Free-Market Analysis: Of course, we're being sarcastic. We're expanding on a previous topic here that mentioned our doubts (along with those expressed by much of the rest of the alternative media) about the Lord's Resistance Army and why it needed to be "hunted."
In a previous article entitled "Reality Check: The African Region that Western Elites have Subjected to War Is Now Larger than the Entire US," we pointed out: "Don't forget Uganda, where the US has sent troops on a quixotic chase to capture a militia man named Joseph Rao Kony, supposedly the head of the Lord's Resistance Army (LRA). It's a Christian 'army,' of course, as the West only seems to enjoy destabilizing either sectarian, Christian or Shia elements and regimes."
Shaken by the advent of the Internet, from what we can tell, the top elites have begun consolidating their power and efforts at building global governance. To do this, they're increasing their control over numerous regions, including Africa.
We've already pointed out numerous times that the elites are destabilizing the Middle East and upper parts of Africa to create a kind of Islamic crescent that can further increase tensions between Islam and the West. The chosen Trojan horse is apparently the CIA-controlled Muslim Brotherhood and the intended result is to justify further totalitarianism throughout the West. Fascism always needs an enemy.
But there is another reason why the West has surreptitiously imposed militarily upon the Middle East and Africa. Once it has fully created its own surrogate network of top politicians and businesspeople, the consolidation of the Middle East and Africa will likely begin in earnest.
The Kony affair is perhaps part of that larger consolidation. The pursuit of Kony, who may not even be alive, has justified US troops' presence in the region. One can speculate that this is part of a larger strategy that involves creating fuller control of these regions in order to begin building a larger union.
A few years ago we went and checked on Wikipedia to see if there was an African Union and, sure enough, we found one. The beginning of the current entry reads as follows:
The African Union is a union consisting of 54 African states. The only all-African state not in the AU is Morocco. The AU was established on 26 May 2001 in Addis Ababa and launched on 9 July 2002 in South Africa[8] to replace the Organisation of African Unity (OAU). The most important decisions of the AU are made by the Assembly of the African Union, a semi-annual meeting of the heads of state and government of its member states. The AU's secretariat, the African Union Commission, is based in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.
But the entry has filled out considerably from what we remembered. We found this as well:
The principal topic for debate at the July 2007 AU summit held in Accra, Ghana, was the creation of a Union Government, with the aim of moving towards a United States of Africa. A study on the Union Government was adopted in late 2006, and proposes various options for "completing" the African Union project. There are divisions among African states on the proposals, with some (notably Libya) following a maximalist view leading to a common government with an AU army; and others (especially the southern African states) supporting rather a strengthening of the existing structures, with some reforms to deal with administrative and political challenges in making the AU Commission and other bodies truly effective.
The individual most involved in a US of Africa was Muammar Gaddafi and his idea of such a federation was that it would serve as a counterweight to Western influence. He also wanted to create a pan-African gold currency. Gaddafi is not proposing either of these ideas anymore, as he is dead.
Also dead, as of today, are 11 elephants in a huge ivory slaughter. The BBC fills us in as follows:
Kenya hunts ivory poachers after elephant family killed – Kenya's Wildlife Service says it is pursuing a gang of poachers they suspect of killing an entire family of 11 elephants. The family was gunned down on Saturday in the single worst incident of ivory poaching recorded in the country. Kenya has recently taken a more aggressive stance against poaching as it tries to combat a surge in demand for ivory from Asia. About 100 elephants are killed each year in Kenya by poachers.
And here is more from the AFP article regarding Kony and elephant poaching:
Most poaching has been reported around the Garamba National Park in DR Congo, according to the rebel-tracking Resolve group. One woman who escaped the LRA in April reported that rebels in Garamba "were ordered by Kony to kill elephants and send their tusks to him," said a recent Resolve report. Park rangers reported finding three dead elephants and having confiscated tusks from suspected LRA forces after a battle, the group added.
Resolve's advocacy director Paul Ronan told AFP there have been other reports since, mainly from other defectors from Kony's band, whose notoriety was brought to a global audience this year by the Invisible Children video. The LRA has waged a fierce insurgency across four countries for the past two decades, becoming infamous for mutilating victims and abducting children for use as sex slaves and soldiers.
This year, the LRA has carried out attacks as far west as Bangassou in Central African Republic, where scores of men, women and children were abducted in September. The LRA gets most of its supplies from looting isolated farming communities. "They don't use a lot of money," said Ronan. They have also attacked military units in countries where they operate to get weapons and ammunition. LRA rebels raided a French-run uranium mine in Central African Republic in June and stole computers, food and cooking supplies.
The United States has 100 special forces advising regional armies hunting Kony. Resolve and other non-government groups say the UN and governments could do more to blunt the LRA threat … Britain called for leaders in LRA-affected countries to hold a special summit to refine the military hunt for Kony by their militaries. France also said the regional force must be given priority.
A number of dominant and subdominant social themes are evident to us. As believers in elite directed history, we see a familiar pattern. There is no real threat from Kony but he has been used to justify US involvement in the Uganda area. More than that, as Kony's supposed activities tend to "float," he provides the US and NATO with a justification to generate a military presence in numerous countries in the greater Ugandan area.
The similarities with the so-called "war on terror" – also an amorphous affair that can be used to justify most any government activism – are uncanny. This is perhaps how the elites work in the modern day. The "enemy" is never clearly defined. But the upshot is always more authoritarianism and projection of Western force around the world.
No doubt, if we are correct, the Kony threat needed an upgraded narrative – hence the elephant poaching accusations. Much of these accusations have occurred, from what we could tell, only in the past month or so. And now we have this gruesome slaughter of elephants.
Like Osama bin Laden himself, Kony is beginning to take on certain mythic qualities. He is terrorizing vast swaths of Africa and now he is an Elephant Slaughterer, too.
Never let it be said that these narratives are static. They demand constant elaboration and surely they receive them.
